In November 2022, Serbian members of the Kosovo Police, the judiciary, and the prosecution in the north of the country resigned. Their resignations followed the decision of the Serbian List to leave the central institutions of Kosovo. These three institutions tell KosovaPress how the work continued after their resignation, how the replacement was made and whether there was a case of any Serbian member who requested to return to work.
The head of the EULEX mission in Kosovo, Giovanni Pietro Barbano, expects the return of Serbian judges and prosecutors to these two institutions. According to him, such a thing is possible because their resignations have not been accepted by KPC and KJC.
The Basic Court in Mitrovica says that there was no request for return to work, while denying that the resigned Serbian judges appear on the payroll.
“We, as the Court, have not accepted such a request, and as far as the issue of salaries is concerned, the immediate reaction of the KJC to the removal from the salary list is public. The resignation affected the first 2-3 months, but not after that, since the Court has been re-organized and stabilized. If we compare the statistical report for the courses accepted and completed in 2022, with the courses accepted and completed in 2023, it results that in 2023 the percentage of completion of courses was 91%, compared to the year 2022 which was 79 %”, reads this answer.
The number of Serbian judges who have resigned is 24. The Basic Court in Mitrovica through a written answer says that the total number of administrative staff who has left this institution exceeds the number of 100.
“The number of Serbian judges resigned on 07.11.2022 is a total of 24, of them 20 from the Mitrovica Basic Court, 2 from the Leposaviq branch, 2 from the Zubin Potok branch, while the total number of resigned administrative staff is 110. As a first measure that the Court has undertaken is the change of the work plan, this change-plan approved by the Kosovo Judicial Council, with which a re-organization of judges and support staff was made, moving them within the departments, in order to cover empty positions. The work continued normally, initially with the handling of urgent cases (18 cases with measures, 7 were related to the criminal offense-Murder) as well as cases from the civil division (Protection Order)”, reads the written response of the Basic Court in Mitrovica.
Also the deputy director of the Police in the north of Kosovo, Veton Elshani, says that no resigned Serbian police officer receives a salary.
He adds that the number of police officers in the north of the country is gradually being replenished. Elshani says that there was a request to return to work, but after issuing the decision to resign, such a thing cannot happen.
The spokesperson of the Basic Prosecutor’s Office in Mitrovica, Valon Preteni, said that after the resignation of the Serbian community police officers, they have faced difficulties in handling cases.
Currently, four prosecutors in the Department for Serious Crimes, two prosecutors in the Juvenile Department and seven prosecutors in the General Department of this prosecution are engaged in the Basic Prosecutor’s Office in Mitrovica.
KosovaPress has also sent questions to the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council,, the same say that since the resignation of the prosecutors, no one has returned to the prosecutorial system.
“Immediately after the resignations of prosecutors and administrative staff from the ranks of the Serbian community in the Basic Prosecutor’s Office in Mitrovica (November 7, 2022), the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council (KPC) made a decision to suspend their salaries and since then none of them have returned in the prosecutorial system”, reads the response of the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council.
Also the Kosovo Judicial Council and the Kosovo Police have said that none of those who resigned have returned to work and have not received salary compensation. /Sh. Pajaziti/
